Linaberger named News Director at KDKA

KDKA-TV announced on Friday that Anne Linaberger was named News Director, effective immediately. Linaberger worked as the assistant ND and has acted in the role of ND since the departure of Coleen Marren who left the position in April after nine months. No on-air changes are in the works, but Linaberger’s first priority is to hire an assistant. She is very well known in the market having worked as a news anchor for WAMO and eventually moved on to WDTV in Clarksburg, West Virginia before heading to WTAE-AM and TV. She stayed with WTAE until 1998 when she moved her job – and then-title of executive producer of special projects – to KDKA-TV. She has filled the role of assistant ND for about five years.

Linaberger took herself out of the mix when the ND position was open in 2009 stating that she was concerned she wouldn’t be able to balance the role of her job and being a monther to a sports-active 10-year-old. Her role as interim news director has allowed her to find that balance.

Ms. Linaberger tells the Post-Gazette that her last on-air appearance was on WTAE in 1994 when USAir Flight 427 crashed near Pittsburgh International Airport. “When the plane crashed, all the anchors were out to dinner, so we looked around the newsroom to see who had ever been on the air before. I started reporting until the anchors got back.”